PROFITS OF THE LARCH. 279 



Already in some of the Western States great interest is taken 

 in the cultivation of the European larch, owing principally, I 

 believe, to the efforts of Mr. Robert Douglas, of Waukegan, 

 Illinois, and large numbers are planted annually, with every 

 prospect of success. In his wholesale catalogue for 1876, 

 Mr. Douglas calls attention to the fact, that the president of 

 the Illinois Central Railroad, after an examination of the larch 

 forests of Europe, and the growth and qnality of this timber 

 produced in Illinois, has without solicitation offered to trans- 

 port European larch free of charge to any point on his lines 

 in Illinois and Iowa, provided they are to be planted in the 

 vicinity of the road. 



Judging from the growth made by the larches in Mr. Fay's 

 plantation, which are the only ones I know in this State 

 offering any valuable statistics in regard to the rapidity of 

 growth of this tree, I think we can feel confident that on 

 the ordinary soil suited to their culture, larch, planted when 

 about one foot high, and three years old, will in twenty years 

 average twenty-two feet in height, and seven inches in dia- 

 meter, three feet from the ground ; and that in thirty years 

 they will be from thirty-five to forty feet high, and twelve 

 inches in diameter ; and if the plantations are thinned to four 

 hundred trees to the acre, that at the end of twenty years 

 more, or fifty years from the time of planting, the trees will 

 reach from sixty to seventy feet in height, and at least twenty 

 inches in diameter. This is also the average growth of this 

 tree in the Highlands of Scotland, under nearly similar 

 conditions. 



Let us consider what profits a plantation of larch, ten acres 

 in extent, and intended to stand for fifty years, would give. 

 The labor of cutting the trees will be more than paid for by 

 the sale at different periods of a large amount of small wood 

 suited to many rustic purposes, but for which no credit is 

 made. It must also be remarked that the following account 

 is charged with a permanent wire-fence, although it is more 

 than probable that any land suited to this purpose, is already 

 surrounded by stone-walls, which would require but little 

 subsequent care. Present prices for forest products are taken, 

 without allowance being made for their probable future in- 

 crease in value. 



